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Tuesday, August 08, 2017

Today I am pleased to announce that I will be running in the upcoming Saanich by election. I am motivated to run by three things:

1) More Housing: the current vacancy rate of 0.5 percent has translated into skyrocketing housing costs for both home buyers and renters alike. The only solution is to build more inventory. Saanich as the largest municipality within the CRD has to be part of that solution.

“Currently far too many housing preojects are being denied, delayed or downsized by council. We need to ensure that housing which caters to not just high income earners but also those who are middle class and low income is also being built.”

2) Lower Taxes: as a long time Saanich resident I am fed up with seeing my municipal tax bill increasing year after year.

“As the graph below shows Saanich increased taxes 58% from 2006 to 2016. It is high time that Saanich learned to live within the means of its taxpayers many of whom have not seen their income increase at all in those same ten years.”

3) Greater Accountability: It is a difficult subject but it is long overdue that some sunlight was brought to the dealings that have been going on at Saanich Municipal Hall and within the CRD.

Whether it is millions of taxpayers’ dollars being wasted onmissteps concerning the CRD Sewage Project or the criminal act of placing spyware on the then newly elected Saanich Mayor’s computer, there clearly needs to be greater accountability and transparency with regards to the decisions being made at both the CRD and Saanich.

“As a Saanich Councilor I will ensure that never again are staff directed to place spyware on an elected officials computer and I will also ensure that never again are Saanich police resources used to harass a candidate for office as apparently happened in the last general election. I look forward to cleaning up
Saanich and having a community that we can all be proud of.”

As someone who served for seven years on Langford’s Planning and Zoning Committee, I have seen first hand how increased higher density residential, commercial and industrial development can lead to lower taxes while at the same time being able to greatly enhance community amenities and infrastructure.

It has also been recently brought to my attention that Saanich is one of the few municipalities that marks up the cost of water that is provided by the CRD. This form of hidden taxation is a regressive tax that I will seek to repeal.

Saanich needs to be a community where people can live work and play with higher density housing complemented by preserved green space, enhanced bike and hiking trails and the like.

“I am a huge fan of the Lochside and Galloping Goose Trails. My family and I frequently use them and I support opportunities to create and upgrade more biking corridors that are separate from regular street traffic.”

Greater Victoria has a population less than that of Burnaby yet we are divided into 13 different municpal governments. Clearly some form of amalgamation would be benificial and I would support holding a referendum to give all residents within the CRD a say in this matter.

The EDPA has been a costly exercise in bureaucratic redundancy. We have both federal and provincial environmental regulations and a municipal tree by law. We also have the usual Saanich shenannigans around the manner in which the EDPA was implemented.

For example we have the farcical situation where sidewalks and paved driveways have been designated as Environmentally Protected Designated
Areas. As a Saanich Councilor I will vote for the rescinding of the EDPA.

Given my positive relationship with a number of CRD area mayors and councilors I am confident that I can also bring to Saanich and the CRD a greater level of cooperation and coordination that will benefit all area residents. My excellent connections to both provincial and federal politicians means that I will
also be able to bring more in the way of matching infrastructure dollars to Saanich.

As the former CEO of Accumulated Ocean Energy Canada, a start up wave energy company, I have had the pleasure of meeting with a wide range of people from our region’s burgeoning high tech community. These clean green high paying jobs are ones I wish to ensure we continue to attract.

But along with those high paying jobs are the many other jobs we rely on. That is why we need to ensure that the people who build our homes, the folks who serve our coffee and the young couple looking to start a family can purchase or rent affordable housing.

That means not only building more housing but also making sure that what is being constructed meets the needs of all our citizens and not just the wealthy few. Social housing co-op housing and the like are all things we can increase via a collaborative approach with both private developers and other levels of
government.

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Let me say first of all I totally get it. All those once middle class white and blue collar workers in the US, watching their incomes stagnate, barely holding on after the recession took their job and their family and the recovery gave them a McJob that they can't survive on. The US government took $700 billion of their tax dollars and bailed out Wall Street so that the high rollers there still got their multi million dollar bonuses for tanking the economy, and the average American still got a foreclosure notice on their home.

Barack Obama was elected with a clear mandate for change. But instead of delivering change he tried to compromise with the Republicans who had no interest in working with a black President. So in the first two years when he could have and should have made changes while he had a legislative majority he wasted that time.

As a result, the progressives that had been so excited by Yes We Can stayed home in the 2010 election year. Meanwhile the GoP was able to fire up its base over the temerity of having a non white as President of the USA thus giving the GoP the numbers to thwart much of Obama's cautious agenda. The result was a recovery that benefited the wealthy and did nothing for the average person.

Two candidates offered a way out from the status quo in a nation desperate for change. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump. The DNC in it's arrogance knew it was Hillary Clinton's turn and did their best to ensure her coronation, thus undermining the legitimacy of Hillary's candidacy.

So after she secured the nomination did Hillary move to secure those that had supported Bernie? Did she pick him as her VP? Nope, he was too socialist and scared the big money backing her. Well what about U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren? Nope, instead she went with Tim Kaine. Then she pivoted not to disaffected Bernie supporters, but to Wall Street and Republican establishment who were horrified that Trump had secured their party's nomination.

I have never been more grateful to be Canadian right now. Trump's victory speech was better than I expected. He talked about rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure, which is needed and will put Americans back to work (assuming it isn't outsourced to Temporary Foreign Workers).

Meanwhile the desperate in the decline will wait to see if Trump rips up the trade agreements that took away their jobs and their dignity. And as bad as these white folks may have it they also hope and expect that Blacks and Hispanics plus of course the LGBT community and Muslims will have it much worse in Trump's America and thus the god given order of things will have been restored.

The GoP congress will continue to put forward tax cuts for the 1% and Trump will gladly sign those into law. He is after all still a member of that 1%. Meanwhile to help get the deficit under control there will have to be cuts for social services and the like, thus once again doubling down on socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.

I was not a fan of Hillary. But I did come to understand how a society as sexist as the United States forced her to be someone she wasn't. She tried being herself years ago as Hillary Rodham and that went over like a lead balloon with the electorate thus she had to become Hillary Clinton.

Trump may do some good but the odds are is that he will do much that is awful. Time will soon tell. Good luck America you are going to need it.

Let me say first of all I totally get it. All those once middle class white and blue collar workers in the US, watching their incomes stagnate, barely holding on after the recession took their job and their family and the recovery gave them a McJob that they can't survive on. The US government took $700 billion of their tax dollars and bailed out Wall Street so that the high rollers there still got their multi million dollar bonuses for tanking the economy, and the average American still got a foreclosure notice on their home.

Barack Obama was elected with a clear mandate for change. But instead of delivering change he tried to compromise with the Republicans who had no interest in working with a black President. So in the first two years when he could have and should have made changes while he had a legislative majority he wasted that time.

As a result, the progressives that had been so excited by Yes We Can stayed home in the 2010 election year. Meanwhile the GoP was able to fire up its base over the temerity of having a non white as President of the USA thus giving the GoP the numbers to thwart much of Obama's cautious agenda. The result was a recovery that benefited the wealthy and did nothing for the average person.

Two candidates offered a way out from the status quo in a nation desperate for change. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump. The DNC in it's arrogance knew it was Hillary Clinton's turn and did their best to ensure her coronation, thus undermining the legitimacy of Hillary's candidacy.

So after she secured the nomination did Hillary move to secure those that had supported Bernie? Did she pick him as her VP? Nope, he was too socialist and scared the big money backing her. Well what about U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren? Nope, instead she went with Tim Kaine. Then she pivoted not to disaffected Bernie supporters, but to Wall Street and Republican establishment who were horrified that Trump had secured their party's nomination.

I have never been more grateful to be Canadian right now. Trump's victory speech was better than I expected. He talked about rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure, which is needed and will put Americans back to work (assuming it isn't outsourced to Temporary Foreign Workers).

Meanwhile the desperate in the decline will wait to see if Trump rips up the trade agreements that took away their jobs and their dignity. And as bad as these white folks may have it they also hope and expect that Blacks and Hispanics plus of course the LGBT community and Muslims will have it much worse in Trump's America and thus the god given order of things will have been restored.

The GoP congress will continue to put forward tax cuts for the 1% and Trump will gladly sign those into law. He is after all still a member of that 1%. Meanwhile to help get the deficit under control there will have to be cuts for social services and the like, thus once again doubling down on socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.

I was not a fan of Hillary. But I did come to understand how a society as sexist as the United States forced her to be someone she wasn't. She tried being herself years ago as Hillary Rodham and that went over like a lead balloon with the electorate thus she had to become Hillary Clinton.

Trump may do some good but the odds are is that he will do much that is awful. Time will soon tell. Good luck America you are going to need it.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynn has made no secret of the fact she wants marijuana in Ontario sold exclusively through government liquor stores, or the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) as they are known there, when the Trudeau government gets around to legalizing weed next year.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with marijuana knows that combing alcohol with weed is a terrible idea. If cannabis and alcohol are used at the same time there is a greater chance of negative side effects including greening out as well as panic and anxiety.

Worse still is the anti nausea effects of marijuana when combined with alcohol. One of the ways your body tries to protect itself from alcohol poisoning is by making you puke when you have drunk too much alcohol. Marijuana shuts down this reflex turning a bender with booze into a potentially life threatening overdose. But none of that matters because Ontario needs money.

With twice the debt of California, Ontario is now the world's most indebted sub-sovereign borrower. Worse still Ontario has only one third the population of California. That is why Ontario has been casting a covetous eye on the tax revenue Colorado has been collecting from its legal marijuana sales with a goal of going one better by cutting out dispensaries and having the province collect not only taxes from the sales but 100% of the retail profits as well.

Former Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who is now the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, has been tasked with shaping the form Canada`s marijuana legalization will take, has made it clear his priorities are getting marijuana sales out of the hands of organised crime as well as protecting kids from marijuana.

I had the opportunity to meet with Minister Bill Blair in May of this year at the federal Liberal convention in Winnipeg. It was shortly after Toronto police had engaged in a massive raid on Toronto dispensaries seemingly at the behest of Toronto Mayor John Tory.

As I said to Minister Blair if whatever system Canada comes up with does not provide Canadian consumers with the quality, variety and price they expect then the black market will continue to thrive.

A couple of weeks later I was in Ottawa where I had the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the same subject. I made it clear that many British Columbians want dispensaries and that tourists visiting our province are expecting a Colorado type experience. Trudeau was unequivocal that those folks setting up dispensaries prior to legalization could expect a visit from the police but that the final form it will take will be up to the provinces.

Fortunately for residents of Victoria and Vancouver, who have their own municipal police forces, the Mayor and Council of those two cities seem reticent to send in the police. As Toronto is discovering conducting such raids leads to expensive litigation from medical marijuana patients and dispensaries alike, it drives consumers back into the hands of street dealers and it would undoubtedly cost them votes.

But costing votes should not just be a concern for municipal politicians. As was the case right across Canada, the Liberals made tremendous electoral gains in British Columbia. Among those elected was someone I highly regard and that is the Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson Raybould.

Although she handily won her riding in Vancouver Granville, a badly handled marijuana legalization that shut out BC dispensaries could place her re-election in question as well as dash current hopes by the Liberal Party of Canada to make further gains in British Columbia in the next federal election.

Besides the needs of consumers and the fate of politicians, there is another aspect at play here and that is economic. According to industry sources 60 per cent of the marijuana consumed in Ontario comes from British Columbia. A Fraser Institute study from 2004 suggests the pot industry was worth $7 billion annually to British Columbia and was the third biggest economic driver after forestry and tourism. It is no exaggeration to say that as wine is to France weed is to B.C.

If Kathleen Wynn gets her way there will be billions less in British Columbians' pockets and billions more in Ontario's provincial treasury. But the other problem with Wynn's LCBO model is that in British Columbia we have both private and public liquor stores and in Alberta they privatized their liquor stores. Already liquor store owners in B.C. are teaming up with the BCGEU to see if they can get in on this lucrative retailing opportunity.

This then creates the farcical situation where the federal government is going to be shutting down private retailers, who are in many instances extremely knowledgeable about marijuana the different varieties and their effects, in order to hand it over to other retailers who may know the difference between a cab sav and a merlot but haven't got a clue about the difference between an indica or a sativa or the difference between THC and CBD.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be wise to resist Premier Wynn's siren call. Yes I understand that there are those who feel that Wynn played a key role in helping vault the Liberals from third place back into government, but on this issue she will do far more to damage rather than help Federal Liberal fortunes.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your
attached proposed regulations which were written without any input from the BC
Vapour Alliance nor as far as we can tell without reference to any scientific or
medical study. In an email dated May 25, 2015 to myself, which I am happy to
provide upon your request, BC Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall stated
that, “nicotine containing electronic delivery
devices are in all likelihood far less dangerous to him/her and those in the
immediate environment than are tobacco containing
cigarettes.”

Despite these findings and the views of your own Provincial Health Officer
you have decided to treat vaping exactly the same as smoking. Yet you have
offered no credible scientific or medical research to back this up. I am very
concerned that your draft regulations have more to do with the influence of big
pharma than they do the safety of consumers.

Speaking of which a number of jurisdictions including the City of Calgary
have recognized that it is important that consumers be able to see how to use
these devices safely. As such they have provided vaping shops with an exemption
which allows these stores to demonstrate how to safely assemble, fill and use
these devices. This also makes sense as Dr. Kendall acknowledges, there are no
proven health effects from breathing in second hand vapour. Yet your
regulations make no provision for this not even if vaping juice containing no
nicotine is utilised.

In our communication with the BC Minister of Health we proposed that vaping
and e-cigarette type devices should not be sold from gas stations and
convenience stores but from dedicated retail outlets where you have to be 19
years of age or older in order to enter. As far as I can tell your proposed
regulations still allow for the sale of these devices from gas stations and
convenience stores where kids can readily enter.

Perhaps most disturbing of all is that by ignoring clear scientific
evidence that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking your regulations
will encourage people to keep smoking tobacco rather than vaping as many
consumers will erroneously conclude that, “if it was any safer the government
wouldn’t be regulating it as harshly as cigarettes.” For every smoker that
concludes this, and there will be many, they will bear the burden of a much
earlier death than if they had switched to vaping and you will bear the cost of
treating their emphysema cancer and the like.

So far from protecting our children and consumers your proposed regulations
do the opposite. Yes it may get a few smokers to switch to Nicorette or some
other medication such as Zyban and Chantix, but it will cause many more who
might have switched to vaping to keep smoking because of your misleading
regulations. We therefore hope that rather than sticking to the medically and
scientifically invalid position that vaping is the same as smoking you will
actually engage in meaningful consultation with the BC Vapour Alliance in order
to draft regulations that actually achieve an optimal outcome for consumers as
opposed to just big Pharma who we are well aware of has been a generous
contributor to this government:

We therefore hope that the lives of consumers as well as small business
owners here in British Columbia who are providing a scientifically proven
healthier alternative to smoking will take precedence over the political
generosity of international pharmaceutical companies.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

As a resident within the CRD for 29
years, and presently a condo owner in Saanich, I fear for my tax bill given the
on going failures and machinations with regards to sewage treatment within the
CRD.

To date $70 million has been spent and
we as CRD taxpayers are already being billed for this on our municipal taxes.
When I made some enquiries I was told by contacts within the CRD to brace myself
for more wasted dollars and a strategy of once again trying to revive the
McLoughlin Point sewage plant location. A position echoed by Bill Beadle on
CFAX yesterday who claims the money wasted to date is more like $100 million and
with a total project cost of $3 billion, an amount that if accurate is simply
unaffordable for area residents. https://soundcloud.com/ian-jessop-cfax/august-31-2pm?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=twitter

The strategy I am told by my sources
within the CRD is as follows:

Let the current present process fail with
further red tape and delays.

Keep a lot of the current process unfolding in-camera away from public and
media scrutiny.

Let the public falsely believe there has
been a positive and supportive public consultation process pointing in a
specific outcome direction.

Keep certain consultants of old plan
still on the payroll as long as possible and make new contract commitments
in-camera.

Use time running out as an excuse to
salvage a hybrid of the old plan and force it back to Viewfield Rd. and
therefore justify that overpriced land acquisition.

Portray any refusal of Esquimalt to zone for a smaller Viewfield Rd.
Treatment facility as being obstructionist and try to influence Province of
British Columbia to step-in and force a rezoning on that basis of deadline
expiring etc.

Preventing any viable alternatives to McLoughlin being put forward. For
example, Saanich council has been preventing alternative site suggestions from
going to the CRD. This includes a proposal by Vanderkerkhove
on a site that is within the ALR and a proposal by MacNutt Enterprises on a site
that is outside the ALR.

The key questions I have are the following:

Have you completely removed McLoughlin Point from consideration a sewage
treatment plant location?

Have you developed alternative site locations to McLoughlin? If so when
will these locations be publicly announced?

Are you willing to consider direct submission for site locations from within
Saanich given the obstructionist position Saanich council is taking?

I thank you for your due consideration of this letter and look forward to
your detailed reply.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

On CFAX at 2:30 today Ian Jessop laid out a devastating critique of Saanich Council especially the dishonest conduct of Councillors Susan Brice and Judy Brownoff the transcript is a must read:

Here is the transcript of Ian Jessop's editorial:
Atwell Editorial
January 15, 2015

The more information members of Saanich Council release about their new mayor, Richard Atwell, the deeper they sink into the excrement of their own making.
Let’s take a look at some of the facts of this controversy and ask some very basic questions that have yet to be answered. First the issue of spyware.

In a news release yesterday, BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham points out there are two types of system monitoring of employees: overt and covert. She states, “Overt monitoring is done with the knowledge of the employees and is typically described as an organization’s acceptable use policies. Employees are notified of these policies on their first day of work, or if it’s a new policy, before monitoring takes effect.” She goes on to say, ”covert monitoring could take the form of tracking Internet use, logging keystrokes or taking screen captures at set intervals as part of ongoing monitoring.” That’s exactly the spyware that has been employed by the District of Saanich.

As the Privacy Commissioner points out, “there have been no cases brought before this Office where covert monitoring was found to be justified under privacy law.”

The City of Victoria said it does not use the program that Saanich uses, Spector 360, or any employee monitoring programs of this kind. It does have industry-standard firewalls but it does not track key strokes, search terms or where employees spend their time.

Members of Saanich council have been stumbling all over themselves trying to justify the installation of the spyware after the new mayor was elected. As veteran reporter Paul Wilcocks, a man of keen political insight, noted on his blog, it was a lame effort by councillors to justify it. “Weasel words and lack of clarity are warning signs in this kind of situation,“ said Wilcocks.
Here is a list of questions that have yet to answered.

Who ordered the spyware purchased?

Will Saanich release the purchase order?

Did the former Chief Administration Officer order its installation?

Why was the decision to install the spyware made after the election?

Will the municipality make public the memo ordering the installation of the spyware?

Whose computers were targeted?

Why were those computers targeted?

Mayor Atwell says 11 computers have the spyware on them. Why were these chosen?

Why only a limited number of computers?

Do members of council have spyware on their computers?

If the new Mayor did not sign the document alerting him to the spyware being installed, as alleged, doesn’t that mean he did not agree with the policy?

Why didn’t someone at Saanich Municipal Hall alert the mayor that he had not yet signed the form before giving him access to his municipal computer?

Two people can review the data captured – the Chief Administrative Officer and the Director of Corporate Services. Why would the Chief Administrative Officer want to spy on the Mayor?

Given the fact the spyware was ordered installed after former Mayor Frank Leonard lost the election, did its installation have to do with the fact that the CAO said he couldn’t work with Richard Atwell?

What is to be done with the information gathered?

What triggers an incident in which these two individuals who have access to the information can take a look at it?

Why does Saanich feel the need to use spyware when other municipalities do not? Was its firewall insufficient?

What does the spyware do that the enterprise firewall cannot do – besides spy on employees?

Last summer, there was a breach of the web services of the City of Victoria and Oak Bay. Was there a breach of Saanich’s web services?
Councillors have stumbled all over themselves in a lame attempt to justify the installation of the software; talking about what was discussed at in-camera meetings which are supposed to be secret.

Sanders stated, “The mayor raised the issue at an in-camera meeting and staff were able to explain exactly what it was. There was nothing about spying on employees.” Well Vicky, it is about spying on employees. How can you be so naïve to suggest that it is not?

Councillor Susan Brice is quoted as saying she can’t speak to any of Atwell’s concerns about spyware but she has total confidence in municipal equipment. What the hell does that mean; the equipment’s ability to spy?

Let’s leave the issue of the spyware and discuss Paul Murray, the former Chief Administrative Officer, who is alleged to have said before the municipal election that he couldn’t work with Richard Atwell.

The mayor of a municipality is the CEO – he or she is in charge. Any mayor will tell you that you need the confidence of Chief Administrative Officer, or City Manager, who closely works with you. That person is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the municipality while the mayor is responsible for the governance of the municipality. They’re a team and need to support each other in the important goals and objectives that council and its management team formulate. If the two of them don’t get along, one of them has to go and it’s certainly not the person elected by residents.

The City of Prince George just got rid of its city manager without the “hair on fire” response that Saanich Council has produced.
But the old guard at Saanich council doesn’t see it that way. They wanted their guy to remain because he knew was part of the entrenched group in Saanich that Richard Atwell wants to change.

Saanich Council agreed at an in-camera meeting to end the relationship with the Chief Administrative Officer but then turned around and condemned the mayor for something they agreed to. Does that make sense to you? If you didn’t agree with the mayor, then vote against him. Don’t be a hypocrite.

Council went on to complain that the $476,000 in severance is tax money that cannot be used for other initiatives of the municipality. What about the $16 million it has cost Saanich taxpayers so far in the sewage debacle that has very little, if anything, to show for it?

Councillors Judy Brownoff and Vicki Sanders never talk about that. Both are members of the sewage committee that has made some abysmal decisions over the years that have wasted millions of tax dollars. On that issue, both are conveniently silent.

As most people in this region are aware, Mayor Atwell has different views on sewage than Brownoff, Sanders and Susan Brice. None of them have ever had the guts to debate Atwell on this issue. Is Councillor Brownoff seeking revenge for having been asked to sept down from the CRD, as has been suggested by former Saanich councillor Carol Pickup?

Now let’s focus on Mayor Atwell.

My advice to him would be to drop the complaint about spyware that you announced yesterday to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. By continuing to pursue it, you just unnecessarily drag this out. Tell officials at municipal hall you want the spyware removed from your computer and to make sure it is. Bring in an outside expert of your choosing to make sure it’s gone. Without fanfare, quietly write a letter to the Privacy Commissioner asking her for her opinion on the spyware’s legality.

Secondly, it’s clearly evident that the police are targeting you; having stopped you four times since you announced your candidacy and not once in the previous seven years. The Saanich Police Association and the Saanich Firemen didn’t support you during the election because you want to include them in the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association. They don’t want to see an end to the sweetheart arrangement they had with your predecessor and his compliant council. My advice is to drop your complaint with the Integrated Road Safety Unit; it’s only going to further exacerbate your relationship with police; a relationship that appears to be beyond repair at this point.

Many successful politicians learn to handle difficult situations with stealth; without public fanfare. My advice to Mayor Atwell is to learn this skill. Learn to handle difficult situations in a quiet, authoritative manner. This will be made easier for you when you get a new Chief Administrative Officer; one you can trust and one who can cover your backside.

Finally, I would suggest you get some different advisors. You need people with keen political insight, people who have been in the trenches and know how to hang a political opponent without them knowing it. You haven’t learned that yet but you have to if you want to survive.

And to members of Saanich Council who are opposed to Richard being the new Mayor seeking change, I leave you with a great quote from Mark Twain; Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Recent events in Saanich have created some confusion about employee privacy in the workplace, but the law is clear.

Employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace, even when using a computer supplied by an employer. These rights were affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Cole and are enshrined in B.C.’s comprehensive privacy laws covering the public and private sector.

We all expect governments and businesses to secure their networked systems against outside intrusions, malware or other threats. But employees don’t check their privacy rights at the office door. Privacy law sets a very high threshold for the use of routine monitoring tools such as keyboard logging, workstation mirroring or tracking of personal messages.

In 2007, my office ruled on a case where a university installed spyware on an employee’s computer to track their activities. We found that data collected by the spyware didn’t meet the necessity test and therefore did not comply with privacy law.

Employee monitoring isn’t as simple as picking a software tool off the shelf. Careful consideration must be paid to what is necessary and reasonable in the circumstances. Employers must ensure that in securing their systems, the privacy rights of employees are respected. Elizabeth Denham Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

As a former Saanich councillor I am disgusted with Saanich police, Saanich !T dept, most of the mainstream media and many of the current Saanich councillors. I was especially disgusted with the role Councillor Judy Brownoff is playing. She is seeking revenge because she was asked to step down from the CRD (and I agree that she should not have been asked to do so) infavour of Fred Haynes. I know all the players in this drama and can assure you that I believe that the former mayor and his supporters are involved. The editorial in the T/C today said it all when they pointed out the inappropriate endorsement of Frank Leonard for mayor by Saanich police and fire depts.. Employee groups should not be trying to influence the outcome of municipal elections in this way. And I totally oppose the installation of the invasive spyware either for the mayor or others in the municipality. All concerned need to get on with serving the residents of Saanich which they were elected to do. Carol Pickup

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About Me

Mike Geoghegan is one of the foremost government and media relations consultants working in British Columbia today. At the provincial government level he served five years as a Ministerial Assistant in the portfolios of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; and Small Business, Tourism and Culture. From this vantage point, Mike gained an in-depth knowledge of the many challenges facing the private sector in B.C.

In August of 1996 Mike went into business as a government and media relations consultant, and has delivered results to a diverse array of clients. He has helped forestry companies grappling with government regulations and land developers needing local and provincial agency approvals. He worked with Victoria area doctors to convince the B.C. Ministry of Health to double MRI operational funding throughout British Columbia and to establish two more MRI facilities on Vancouver Island (see a related Canadian Medical Association Journal article).

Mike has worked extensively with a variety of First Nations and Indian Bands seeking to resolve long-standing land claims. Amongst his many successes in working with First Nations was convincing Canada and British Columbia to settle a 108 year old specific land claim involving the Osoyoos Indian Band; and, more recently, bringing Canada to the table to reach a settlement of long-standing land claim involving the Okanagan Indian Band (see the September 28, 2002 media release from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada).

Mike was also involved in bi-lateral negotiations between Canada and the Westbank First Nation that culminated in a self-government Agreement. He has also been involved in a number of economic development projects involving First Nations and private sector companies.

From 1997 until 2003 Mike Geoghegan served on Langford's Planning and Zoning Committee. The spectacular economic growth that Langford has experienced over the last several years has made it the envy of other municipalities located within the Greater Victoria region.

Mike Geoghegan's in-depth knowledge of BC politics is reflected in the fact that two noted authors of books on BC politics both quoted Mike and thanked him for his assistance. The first author was Dan Gawthrop, whose book "High-wire Act: Power, Pragmatism and the Harcourt Legacy" was published by New Star Books in 1996. The second author was Mark Milke, whose book "Barbarians in the Garden City: The BC NDP in Power" was published in 2001 by Thomas & Black.

Mike has over twenty years experience in drafting press releases, organizing news conferences and other media events. He has an extensive array of connections amongst politicians and the civil service both in Victoria and Ottawa. He also enjoys a good working rapport with reporters working at the regional, provincial and federal level.